Finding Normal

I'm having a productive Friday!  After some difficult days, we are finding a rhythm while preparing our home and our hearts for days without our middle child.  His absence is a tangible thing...we stop mid-task and remember and laugh about something Sam said or did.  Or we sit and listen to the silence and cry some.  It's all good.  He is well loved and will be well remembered.

I'm slowly making my way back into the sewing room.  Other things have had priority this week like some much-needed deep cleaning, some gardening (corn, beans, tomatoes, okra, zucchini and zinnias :-D), going through Sam's things and determining what is "keeper" and what should be saved or donated. 

But my sewing room calls me! :-)  I have a couple of t-shirt quilts, a couple of memory quilts, and three pieced quilt tops (I have the blocks, so I design the setting and sew them together) to do for other people, and I really need to get them done this month.  And as I'm preparing them, I'm thinking about how I can use Sam's t-shirts and dress shirts for quilts (Bonnie Hunter wouldn't waste them!! LOL).

Speaking of Bonnie, she sent me the sweetest email expressing sympathy over Sam's passing, and I had to ask her, "Can I use Sam's boxer shorts in a quilt!?" :-D

TWENTY-FOUR pairs! 2 Dozen! AND...About 18 of them were on the floor.  LOL  We've laughed while cleaning his room.  If he hadn't died, we'd have "killed him" over the dust and debris and multiple piles of laundry! LOL  Washing his clothes gave me much solace, sorting as I went along into "Will will grow into these," goodwill, and "going into a quilt" piles.

Bonnie says the boxers can be used...I'll have to watch for the thinner parts (in the seat and inner thighs :-D), but if old feedsacks and recycled clothing from eras past have lasted, there's no reason his boxers won't work.  I've had in mind a while to do something with the boxers he outgrew (and those Jeff rips out along the way as well! :-D), and my idea was to call the quilt, "Boxer Rebellion." LOL  I have plenty to work with, I think, for a good-sized quilt.

Bonnie's note was one of literally hundreds.  Thank you all SO very, very much for the sweet cards and emails and blog posts....I'm just overwhelmed by the love and sympathy. 

And someone got a quilt block thing going for me....

Hearts!!

I've gotten eleven heart blocks in the mail!! When we realised Sam was gone home, I turned into Jeff's arms and whispered, "He was the son of my heart!" -- So much like me, outgoing and always laughing and quipping. With me all the time, self-professed on his facebook profile a "momma's boy." :-D ...

How absolutely lovely and perfect the hearts are!  Words cannot express my joy and overwhelming gratitude at such an outpouring by you all.   Without a doubt, you have helped me immeasurably through this tragedy, and my blessings are too many to number in it!!

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

⁹ Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. ¹⁰ For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Thank you all so much for lifting me up!

Blessings,

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.
Psalm 116:15 (NKJV)